FERNANDO FERRER’S private polls show the mayoral race is much closer than the double-digit blowout being predicted in the public polls. At least that’s what Ferrer aides are telling donors.

“They’re telling people it’s under 10 points,” said one source.

The latest public poll released by Marist College Sept. 27 showed Mayor Bloomberg whipping Ferrer by 15 points, 54-38 percent among likely voters.

A Quinnipiac University poll issued Sept. 21 had virtually identical results, with Bloomberg at 52 percent and Ferrer at the same 38 percent.

Just about every analyst is forecasting that the mayoral race will turn into a single-digit affair, if for no other reasons than voter demographics and party registration.

Ferrer desperately needs that tightening to occur quickly in the public polls so he can convince potential contributors to open their wallets.

Because Bloomberg isn’t participating in the campaign-finance program, Ferrer gets a 6-to-1 match for every dollar he can bring in from city residents, up to a maximum match of $1,500 for each $250 contribution.

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Apparently Dennis Rivera wasn’t kidding when he announced that Local 1199, the health-care workers union that he leads, would do everything in its power to unseat Bloomberg.

Sources said that Rivera has dispatched Patrick Gaspard, his top political aide, to Ferrer’s campaign as a special adviser. The mild-mannered Gaspard is considered one of the city’s most experienced campaign operatives and Ferrer’s camp has been trying to land him for months.

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The city’s Off-Track-Betting Corp. continues to lose money on its operations – but less than projected.

OTB dropped $9.5 million in fiscal 2004 and the state comptroller’s office had predicted it would hemorrhage $11.6 million in fiscal 2005, which ended on June 30.

But OTB president Ray Casey said it looks like OTB will come in with only a $6 million loss when the books are finally closed, thanks to some belt-tightening and $2 million in one-shot revenues.